


Raindrops

by kawada_s



Category: Battle Royale - All Media Types
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-30
Updated: 2016-11-30
Packaged: 2018-09-03 06:41:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8701450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kawada_s/pseuds/kawada_s
Summary: Set during the film, in the scene where Noriko runs into Mitsuko. Kitano doesn't show up.





	

Raindrops

She gets up as soon as she hears his cries of pain in the distance. Her empty bowl drops to the ground and Kawada calls after her to come back, but she doesn't listen. She knows in the back of her mind that being impulsive while in a game like this is dangerous, but she can't help herself. After hearing the sounds of Kiriyama's guns going off over and over, she had thought he was dead. She had prepared herself to hear his name during the next announcement, but he was still _here_.

It pours with rain as she runs through the forest, and she tries her hardest not to slip on the muddy ground. Leaves smash into her face and branches scratch her skin, but she still continues to run. She can't hear him anymore, but she can still hear Kawada screaming for her to come back. It's too late to try and retrace her steps - she's already lost.

She brushes the leaves away from her face, the rain getting heavier. She wonders what will become of her if she stays lost. Will Kiriyama find her, or someone else who is playing the game? All her friends were dead, but she wasn't sure if they could be trusted in the first place.

Megumi's smiling face fills her mind. Had it been quick when she died? How scared had she been? She tries not to think about it. So far, it was easier to push her feelings away rather than fully accept she was gone.

"Looking for someone, Nakagawa?" a voice says from behind.

Noriko turns around quickly, hair sticking to her face from the rain, seeing Mitsuko sitting in the midst of the storm. She doesn't look as pretty as she has always remembered her being. Her dark hair lays limp by her sides in a knotty mess, and her eyes, which once were filled with fire, are now dull. She notices pink stains on her jacket, and realises quickly she has killed. She wonders what death she is responsible for - or if there are multiple.

"Mitsuko..." Noriko whispers her name as the other girl stands. She looks somewhat defeated, somewhat amused. Noriko wonders if she's lost her mind.

Mitsuko steps closer to her, mud sloshing under her shoes, slinging her bag over her shoulder. A hand snakes behind her back, as if she is going to perform a magic trick. Kawada yells out again, sounding slightly closer this time.

"Oh? Who would that be?" Mitsuko says, feigning interest. Noriko hears Shuya yell in agony again. Hope rises in her eyes, but she's not sure what Mitsuko wants - maybe she won't even leave alive.

"Nanahara, and Kawada. I... I lost them," Noriko mumbles. The rain is pouring even harder now and her clothes stick to herself uncomfortably. She feels unbelievably cold.

When Mitsuko sees her shivering, a smile crosses her lips, knowing she will soon be bathing in the warmth of her own blood. She wishes for a moment that things could be different, that she could take her hand and find a house somewhere, and seek shelter with her. She wonders how much warmth a kiss from her would provide. She seemed like a girl with warm lips, that would taste sweet. Not that she would ever know.

God, she hated her. She hated her enough back at school that she almost didn't care - she'd promise impressionable idiots like Yahagi and Tendo money she’d end up never giving them to lock her in bathroom stalls, scrawl rumours about her on walls, to push her down the stairs and make sure she understood the fact that she was ugly and had no worth.  

She didn't want her to know how much she thought the opposite. How much she wanted to kiss her, even ask her out on a date, run her hands through her dark hair and actually try to feel love for once. She was the loser, the boyfriend-stealer, the school's cheap tramp - what would she know about love? It was easier to try and make it all go away. So far, it hadn’t worked, but that was going to change.

It was about to go away for good.

"Two princes protecting you, huh? Such a real princess," Mitsuko smirks. She watches Noriko step back, her body crashing into a tree with a light thud.

In that moment, she hates Nanahara and Kawada, for doing what she couldn't. She hates herself for not doing it, for loving her like mad yet hating her at the same time. She hates her for being so perfect, with the good family, grades, and loyal friends. Most of all, she hates the way that she made it so easy to love her. She was now pointing a gun at her chest and had a sickle covered in her best friend's blood in her bag. She would hate her so much if she knew, if the perfect girl was capable of that emotion. Yet, somehow, Mitsuko still loved her, all the while hatred boiled in her veins.

"Too bad this time, they aren't going to be coming to rescue you," Mitsuko presses a finger to the trigger. "Die, you ugly bitch!"

Noriko looks at her with strained eyes, them filled with terror as she waits for the shot. She's stuck, it's too late to run now, and Mitsuko would be after her anyway. She waits for the bullet to lodge itself in her heart and to die, but it doesn't come.

The thought suddenly hits her. She knows she's dancing with death, but she can't stop herself.

"You can't do it, can you?" Noriko says quietly. Her words can barely be heard over the pouring rain, but Mitsuko can just catch them. They lodge themselves inside her like the bullet should be inside Noriko's heart.

She doesn't understand it. It’s ridiculous. She can slit the throat of a girl that only annoyed her a few times in a heartbeat, can gun down a girl she once called a friend and tear holes in the back of a girl that she was jealous of without batting an eyelid, yet she can't pull the trigger when it comes to the girl she hates the most.

She keeps the gun pointed at her. She thinks back at how easy it was to shoot it those times before. She thinks of crude graffiti, her face the brightest in a cheering crowd, the taste of her cookies after she stole a bunch of them from her locker, just to see what the fuss was about - how they're as sweet as she is. She thinks of how much she hates her, just for having a mother that cares, a father that stayed and friends that she didn't fuck up with. She thinks of her good grades and how she's been told she’s wasting her potential so many times this year. She thinks of how she has so much love and faith in this world that eventually chews everyone up and then spits them back out again.

"Why is it so hard?!" Her scream is heard easily over the rain, and she throws the gun on the floor with a shaking hand. Noriko's body is still pressed to the trunk of the tree, and she looks like a deer in the headlights.

She wonders if Noriko thinks that Mitsuko Souma, the school's loser, has finally lost her mind completely.

She doesn't expect Noriko to move closer to her instead of taking her chance to run away. She doesn't expect her to sit there and watch her cry, like a fucking idiot, Kitano probably laughing his ass off in the control room at her display. She definitely doesn't expect her to reach up and brush away the tears with her thumbs, a futile effort with the rain pouring down on them.

"You’re lost," Noriko says, as if stating a simple fact.

She looks her in the eyes as if they hold every answer to getting out of this shithole alive. Mitsuko wonders why she hasn't just shoved her away or picked up the fucking gun again, and gotten rid of the girl that’s made her shed her first real tears in over a decade. She still doesn't make a move for it.

"I guess you could say that," she whispers back. She wondered when it first started - the drinking, the drugs, the sleeping around, all the other shit she did - why no one tried to pull her back.

 _No one cared enough_ , she tells herself. _And anyone who has ever possibly cared, I made stop_.

She wonders if Noriko knows if it was her behind the bullying and taunts. She wonders what she would say if she found out she killed Megumi. She decides to keep both things a secret. It wouldn’t do anything to help them now.

She looks at Noriko, and she wants to yell at her when she sees she's crying too - properly overwhelmed by the fact she's still alive. She pushes the urge to scream at her away. Instead, she gently pushes her hands away from her cheeks and cups her own, and finally kisses her. Her lips don't taste sweet as she imagined - at least, not after the tears and the rain have gotten to her. It still doesn't ruin the experience.

While it's what she's dreamed about for a long time now, Mitsuko is the one to pull away. She throws her gun at the other girl, not wanting it anymoe.

She sees Noriko go to ask what she's doing, but she decides to stay quiet. She instead touches her lips where Mitsuko's were a moment ago, and clasps the gun tightly in her other hand.

Mitsuko leaves without another word, and Noriko feels as if a ghost has just swept by her, leaving nothing but the taste of blood on her lips.


End file.
